Monday January 13th at 7:00 PM Muddy York Brewing Co. 22 Cranfield Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4B 3H1 MAP
This month we have five exciting meeting elements!
Presentation: Brewing Water Chemistry by Eric Cousineau
Special Guest: Q&A with Lizanne Pharand (P.Eng.) from Toronto Water
Style of the Month:Bock
Presented by: Emily Storey
Homebrew Bottle Swap
Structured Tasting *New Format*
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Monday December 9th at 7:00 PM People’s Pint Brewing Company
90 Cawthra Ave, Unit #101, Toronto, Ontario, M6N 3C2 MAP
This month come hang out, swap homebrews, and mingle!
This December we are being hosted by People’s Pint Brewing Company. Thanks for hosting us! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. They have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Monday October 22nd at 7:00 PM Northern Maverick Brewing Co.
115 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, M5V 2P9 MAP
This month we have two exciting meeting elements!
Presentation: Finishing Beer: Everything After Fermentation to Make Great Beer
Structured Tasting
This October we are going back to our gracious host, Northern Maverick Brewing Co.. Thanks for hosting us! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Their food is fantastic (try the Jamaican patties), and they have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
Exchange Date: Monday, Nov 25th, 2018Exchange Location(s):Muddy York Brewing Co. (at the monthly meeting)Participation Fee: $10
The Annual GTA Brews Advent Calendar is back for the 6th year ...
This content is only available for GTA Brews Members. Please visit our membership page to join today! If you are already a member, don't forget to Log In!
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Inquiries about Brew Slam 2019 should be sent to: comp@gtabrews.ca
GTA Brews is excited to announce our fifth annual, nation-wide, homebrew competition for beer, mead, and cider; Brew Slam 2019 (#BrewSlam)! We are excited to build on last year’s massive success which saw 826 entries, from 191 entrants, in 8/10 provinces, judged by 75 judges, over just 3 days, making this the largest homebrew competition in Canada! We are ecstatic to have John Palmer attending as our guest of honour (Nov 8-10) to help ring in our 5th year!
Monday August 12th at 7:00 PM Northern Maverick Brewing Co.
115 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, M5V 2P9 MAP
This month we have two exciting meeting elements!
Presentation: BOTY Winner Panel and Q&A
Panelists: Chris Hughes, Darrell Kelly, Matt King, Mark Hubbard, Andrew McCready, Nick Hodowsky, Iain Robertson
Panel Moderator: Eric Cousineau
Structured Tasting
This June we are going back to our gracious host, Northern Maverick Brewing Co.. Thanks for hosting us! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Their food is fantastic (try the Jamaican patties), and they have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
Our annual general survey is now accepting submissions! We use the results of this survey each year to help inform the direction of the club and identify areas of strength and opportunities to improve. The survey will remain open until 11:59 PM on August 30th!
Update: Survey deadline extended until 11:59 PM on Thu Sept 12th!
This survey is open to both members and non-members, since we want to hear from everybody! The survey takes as little as 5-10 mins if you elect to answer only the mandatory questions, or a little longer if you choose to write more detailed answers (and we hope you do).
How can we make the best homebrew club in the world even better?!
Participants are eligible for a drawing of gift cards to Brew North andToronto Brewing! Thanks to our local homebrew stores for donating these prizes to help encourage participation, please support them with your patronage!
This club belongs to all of us, and we want to make sure are all satisfied with the value you get for your membership. There will always be some challenges, but we are always looking for solutions and opportunities to improve. Please share your thoughts in as much detail as you are comfortable with, and we promise to read and seriously consider them.
Monday July 8th at 7:00 PM Muddy York Brewing Co.
22 Cranfield Road, Toronto, Ontario, M4B 3H1 MAP
This month we have four exciting meeting elements!
Presentation: Brewing by the Numbers by Emily Storey
A presentation breaking down entry statistics from Brew Slam 2018
Guest: Kathy Yan Li will discuss the new Canadian Homebrewers Association
Structured Tasting
Bottle Swap
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
This June we are going back to our gracious host, Northern Maverick Brewing Co.. Thanks for hosting us! This month we have a special GTA Brews Menu that will be available to our members! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Their food is fantastic (try the Jamaican patties), and they have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Monday April 8th at 7:00 PM Northern Maverick Brewing Co.
115 Bathurst St, Toronto, ON, M5V 2P9 MAP
This month we have three exciting meeting elements!
Presentation: Pro Brewer – Matti Cowan of Silly Sir Brewing Co. presents: Brewing with Spice and Fruit!
Eric Cousineau presents: Intro to BJCP Certification
Structured Tasting
This April we are going back to our gracious host, Northern Maverick Brewing Co.. Thanks for hosting us! This month the “Hoppy Hour” Snack Menu will be available to our members! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Their food is fantastic (try the Jamaican patties), and they have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
Click Here to go to the main competition page and register!
Our popular seasonal homebrew competition is back for 2019! As usual, we will be accepting all styles of beer, mead, and cider. Since this is our small competition, entry will be restricted to GTA Brews members only.
This seasonal competition is designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members to enter their beers for feedback and fun. The focus is on providing excellent feedback, so we keep the entry cap and fee low. Our hope is that lots of first-time entrants will find themselves on the winners list and be motivated to continue entering competitions. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the 2015 BJCP Guidelines.
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Time to announce the sign up for out 4th barrel fill! The barrel will stay in its current home at Peoples Pint Brewing Co.
We will be filling the barrel with a Flanders-style Red. Want in on this fun members-only project? Log in, then click the link below and apply for the barrel. We will randomly pick applicants to participate in the barrel fill.
This content is only available for GTA Brews Members. Please visit our membership page to join today!
If you are already a member, don't forget to Log In!
This February we are going back to our gracious host, Northern Maverick Brewing Co.. Thanks for hosting us! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Their food is fantastic (try the Jamaican patties), and they have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
Company Update: Richard and Nate of Escarpment Labs
Bi-Monthly Homebrew Bottle Swap
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Monday December 10th at 7:00 PM People’s Pint Brewing Company
90 Cawthra Ave, Unit #101, Toronto, Ontario, M6N 3C2 MAP
This month come hang out, swap homebrews, and mingle!
This December we are being hosted by People’s Pint Brewing Company. Thanks for hosting us! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. They have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
2018 Advent Calendar: The bottle exchange is happening this meeting! Bring your 30 brews to swap or send a mule – We don’t want any missing dates!
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
This October we are going back to our gracious host, Northern Maverick Brewing Co.. Thanks for hosting us! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Their food is fantastic (try the Jamaican patties), and they have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
The 5th Annual GTA Brews Advent Calendar is just days away! 24 brewers will swap 24 beers at 7pm on Monday, November 26th at Muddy York. If you’re just hearing about it now, you missed the boat! K...
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If you are already a member, don't forget to Log In!
Entry registration is now open, and spots are already filling up quickly! Visit the Brew Slam 2018 page to learn more, and register your entries.
Entry Registration and Drop Off
Registration will close on Nov 3rd, or when the 850 entry cap is hit. Entries will be accepted at drop off and shipping locations beginning on Oct 11th. If you need to drop off earlier for any reason, please email us.
If the cap is hit, the site won’t allow any more entries to be registered. In this case we will do our best to follow up on unpaid entries, and verify if the entrants still need the spot(s).
Please do everyone (especially our Registrar) a favour, and only register entries you actually plan to submit, then pay for them right away. We will provide regular entry registration updates on social media.
Volunteering
Brew Slam is a volunteer driven competition, so please consider donating a bit of your time to help this competition happen. The Brew Slam 2018 comittee has been hard at work for months laying the groundwork for another fantastic year, please help us out by registering as a volunteer.
We need help with Bottle Sorting (Nov 4th), and Stewarding/Judging (Nov 9-11th), learn more on our Brew Slam Volunteer page. If you have a friend that is a BJCP judge, please encourage them to attend!
Monthly Swap: Bottle Exchange – No sign-up required! Just bring a 6 pack of your finest brews and you’ll receive a randomized 6-pack to take home! Please try to include your name, beer name and style on the label/sticker.
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Our annual general survey is now accepting submissions! We use the results of this survey each year to help inform the direction of the club and identify areas of strength and opportunities to improve. The survey will remain open until 11:59 PM on August 22ndSept 11th.
This survey is open to both members and non-members, since we want to hear from everybody! The survey can take as little as 5-10 mins to answer only the mandatory questions, or longer if you elect to write more detailed answers (and we hope you do).
How can we make the best homebrew club in the world even better?!
This August we are going back to our gracious host, Northern Maverick Brewing Co.. Thanks for hosting us! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Their food is fantastic (try the Jamaican patties), and they have plenty of beer-to-go in their bottle shop!
HomebrewCon is wrapped up for another year, and this year marked our best year ever for club attendance! In attendance we had: Zack, Eric, Rebecca, Matti, Sara, Jesse, Sasha, Jim, Laila, Kathy, Victor, and Fred!
We are going back to our gracious host, Muddy York Brewing Co! We request that everyone spend some money to support our wonderful host. Don’t forget to buy some bottles from their shop!
Click Here to go to the main competition page and register!
The sixth competition in this small competition series will take place in May, and since we skipped Winter Warmer, we will be accepting all styles of beer, mead, and cider!
These seasonal competitions are designed to be a “low stakes” introduction to BJCP competitions for club members (and anyone else) to enter their beers for feedback and fun. This competition will be judged by BJCP Judges according to the 2015 BJCP Guidelines.
Time to announce the sign up for out 3rd barrel fill! This time the barrel is being hosted at Peoples Pint Brewing Co.
We will be filling the barrel with a golden sour. Want in on this fun members-only project? Log in, then click the link below and apply for the barrel. We will randomly pick applicants to participate in the barrel fill.
This content is only available for GTA Brews Members. Please visit our membership page to join today!
If you are already a member, don't forget to Log In!
Brew Slam 2017 is finally wrapped up after almost a whole year of planning, and a ton of execution. What a year! The last of the prizes made their way into the hands of our winners this week, so it’s finally time to write my annual wrap up post. With 806 entries judged, I’m very proud to say that we met and exceeded our goal for 2017 of becoming Canada’s largest homebrew competition (by almost 300 entries)!
Saturday morning judging
The judging and awards for Brew Slam 2017 happened back in November, but we’ve been hard at work since then making sure that everyone got their prizes as fast as we could. Don’t stop reading now because some pretty amazing things happened this year that I want to share. Continue reading Brew Slam 2017 – Wrap Up→
Our famous hop buy is back for 2018! This year we're excited to have almost a half of ton of hops contracted! Along with the tried, tested and true hops, some notable additions to the hop contract this year include Azacca, El Dorado, and Equinox!
This content is only available for GTA Brews Members. Please visit our membership page to join today!
If you are already a member, don't forget to Log In!
Hold on to your butts! I am by title the Operations Manager for Supply Chain Division. Really, I’m mostly an implementation consultant for Warehouse Management Software. Have fun figuring out what that means.
What got you into homebrewing?
Pretty certain I was walking in Loblaws one day and noticed a can of extract they were selling. No idea if they still do or not but I was intrigued by the idea of being able to brew at home. I persisted through so many terrible beers and eventually learned a little bit. Continue reading Member Profile: Clayton Hoy→
When people think of advent calendars they usually think of candy, but since we are a homebrew club we are thinking beer. A homebrew advent calendar is the best kind of advent calendar since you g...
This content is only available for GTA Brews Members. Please visit our membership page to join today!
If you are already a member, don't forget to Log In!
This past weekend saw Toronto’s 9th annual #Learn2Brew event, with both east and west locations again this year! One change we tried this year is moving it to September, during Toronto Beer Week (TBW), to take advantage of the warmer weather.
Huge gratitude to our generous hosts Rainhard Brewing Company, and Common Good Beer Co. This event wouldn’t be possible without local breweries like these two that support the homebrewing hobby.
Learn2Brew is an event where a half dozen brewers set up and demonstrate the brewing process. We invite the public to come in, learn about homebrewing, and hopefully get inspired to join this wonderful hobby. Here’s a smattering of pictures to give you an idea Continue reading Learn2Brew 2017 Recap→
Thanks again to Toronto Brewing for hosting, please make sure to give them your love and make some purchases on pick up day! Don’t forget, now they deliver your online order to breweries all over Toronto for FREE!
Sign Up Open: Saturday Apr 29th, 2017 Sign Up Close: Thursday, May 18th, 2017 (11:59 pm) Payment Deadline: Tuesday, May 23rd, 2017 (11:59 pm) Split Date: Friday, Jun 2nd, 2017 Main Pick Up Date: Saturday Jun 3rd, 2017 (10:30 am – 1:30 pm) Continue reading Grain Buy – Spring 2017→
Sign Up Open: Tuesday Jan 24th, 2017 Sign Up Close: Thursday Feb 16th, 2017 Payment Deadline: Thursday Feb 23rd, 2017 Split/Pick-Up Date: Saturday March 4th, 2017
Brew Slam 2016 Awards wrapped up just over a week ago, results have been announced, scoresheets were posted, and prizes will be mailed (and emailed) out soon. I think it’s safe to finally start writing this wrap up post after what seems like almost a whole year of prep!
Some notable accomplishments and improvements we made this year:
I’m the VP of Engineering (and co-owner) at Innovere Medical Inc. I basically work with a small team of awesome people developing and manufacturing MRI compatible patient comfort devices and MRI devices for Continue reading Member Profile: David Green→
As our 2015-2016 season draws to a close, we’re excited to announce that we are doing something exciting to drive membership renewal for the 2016-2017 season!
From today until Oct 1st, we have special deals on membership where you buy some swag and get your membership for FREE! After Oct 1st, membership will be available for it’s new price of $10 per year.
Announcing the results from the BJCP component of the 2016 Cask Days Homebrew Competition! Please check the PDF link above for the list of winners. Congratulations to everyone that placed in the competition!
Judges were asked to nominate 1-3 beers from their table to move onto the selection component of the competition where the 10 brewers were selected. In total 21 beers were nominated for the selection round, and it was very difficult to pare that list down to only 10 beers. The selected brewers have been notified privately so we can begin planning, but their names won’t be announced publicly today. Cask Days will announce their names in early August.
Scoresheets containing the judge’s feedback and scores are still being sorted, but they will be sent out very soon.
In total we had 79 entries from 44 brewers submitted. Thank you to our 16 judges, and 5 stewards for their hard work on the judging day, we couldn’t have done this without you. There were plenty of excellent beers submitted and we wish we had enough capacity to brew more, but we we’re only able to select ten.
Don’t forget that Brew Slam 2016 is coming up in September! If you enjoyed this competition, you’ll enjoy Brew Slam even more since it is our flagship homebrew competition. We have thousands of dollars in prizes up for grabs, plus several Pro-Ams!
GTA Brews is pleased to announce the dates and details for our Brew Slam 2016 Homebrew Competition in Toronto. These dates might seem like a ways away, but it’s actually under 3 months away so get brewing and mark the deadline in your calendar!
Brew Slam 2015 (recap) was our club’s first big competition. It was a huge success with 318 entries judged in only 2 days, almost 50 amazing volunteers, and thousands of dollars in prizes!
We are excited to build on last year and make Brew Slam 2016 bigger and better. Our goal is to make this the premier competition in the area for both judges and entrants. Toronto has the largest pool of BJCP judges in Canada which allows us to focus on the best quality judging and feedback possible. We are also excited to work with some fantastic sponsors for even better prizes than last year!
About GTA Brews
We are Toronto’s local homebrew club. Since establishing our club in 2013 we have gained momentum and grown into Canada’s largest homebrew club with well over 200 Paid Members. We bring Toronto area homebrewers together in person, and online, to create a friendly community where we share knowledge, talk shop, and provide feedback on each others homebrews. We welcome members of all experience levels including; potential brewers, new brewers, experienced brewers, and pro brewers.
The winners of this competition will work with our partner breweries in August and September to re-brew their beer to be served at Cask Days 2016. This is a rare opportunity for homebrewers to get their name out there and share their love of the hobby with a thirsty crowd of thousands of people.
Spring Showdown judging happened yesterday April 27th. Scoresheets will be emailed out in the next week or two.
First of all, a huge thanks to all the volunteers for their hard work yesterday. Without the hard work of the judges and stewards this wouldn’t have been possible! I believe this competition was a huge success!
Also a huge thanks to Jordan and Rainhard Brewing for hosting the judging! Also thanks to Patrick Brown, Mark Verok, Andrew Byer, and Eric Cousineau for acting at drop off locations!
We had 63 entries, 16 judges, and 6 stewards. I believe the judging quality was overall high, and from where I was it seemed like judges felt comfortable and were able to focus on writing the best sheets possible.
This is a new feature we are introducing on our club blog. We will periodically profile some of our club members to help build our sense of community and also to help people get to know each other more. If you would like to volunteer to be profiled please email gtabrews@gmail.com!
*Note from Eric: Andrew is our VP Communications, and also runs our social media. I’m glad he agreed to be our first club member profiled!
